Ancient Endosymbionts May Have Led to Double-Membrane Bacteria

Abstract

Ancient clostridia and actinobacteria formed an endosymbiosis that eventually led to the double-membraned, or gram-negative, bacteria that we know today, according to James Lake from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and his collaborators. This endosymbiosis “developed over billions of years as the partners evolved, adapted, and exchanged genes through traditional gene-transfer mechanisms,” the UCLA researchers note in the 20 August 2009 Nature (460:967–971).